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Supplements and MultiVitamins are Waste of Money: Study

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We often use supplements and multivitamins in a bid to keep ourselves fit and strong. But a new study suggests, taking multivitamins or any other form of supplements is mere wastage of money.

If go by the statistics, approximately 53 percent of all Americans take at least one supplement each.

The findings of the study comes as a good news for those who have reasonably good diet, but the industry experts predict bad days ahead for the $53 billion industry in the United States of America.

An article published in the Annals of Internal Medicine has mentioned about three researches that aimed at finding the benefits of supplements and multivitamins. But none of them found any benefits from the same.

The study analyzed the effects of supplements and multivitamins on cancer, cardiovascular disease, mortality, and cognitive decline. The results were disappointing for many who were firm consumer of such medicines. Study found no significant differences between people who took vitamin supplements and who didn’t.

Researchers say, herbal supplements are most commonly used by the people in the US as well as other parts of the world, thanks to its ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ tag. This accounts for a $5 billion industry. Some previous researchers have highlighted more than 50,000 adverse effects of using herbal supplements.

Scientists explain, the human body can only absorb a certain amount of vitamins and minerals per day. The excess amount is excreted from the body in the form of urine. However, excess fat-soluble vitamins are stored in the body. Scientists say these stored vitamins are dangerous for health. Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic, say excess vitamin E increases the risk of prostate cancer. Similarly, too much vitamin A increases the risk of osteoporosis and hip fracture.

The findings of the study and other similar studies are still a matter of rigorous debate as the experts and the industry analysts do not suggest rooting these supplements out of your diet.